Capuchin monastery in Baden

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Capuchin monastery in Baden
medal Capuchin
founding year 1591
Cancellation / year 1841
Start-up new order
Patronage Catherine of Alexandria ; John the Baptist
location
country Switzerland
region Aargau
place Baden AG
Geographical location 47 ° 28 '  N , 8 ° 18'  E Coordinates: 47 ° 28 '16.2 "  N , 8 ° 18' 24.7"  E ; CH1903:  665,454  /  258185
Capuchin monastery Baden (Switzerland)
Red pog.svg
Situation in Switzerland

The Capuchin Monastery Baden is a former monastery of the Capuchin Order in the city of Baden , Canton Aargau in Switzerland . The foundation stone for the first monastery building outside the Stadtbachgraben was laid in 1591. The monastery was closed in 1841. The second monastery complex, founded in 1653, was demolished in 1855 for the construction of the old school house . The monastery church then served as a school chapel until it was also demolished in 1877.

history

The first monastery was built between 1588 and 1591 south of the city ​​tower beyond the city moat. Due to the strong influx, a larger new building was built on the site in 1653. The city council had declined to move to another location and insisted that the monastery should not contain more than twelve people. Due to the structural details and the handwriting, the original plans preserved in the Lucerne Provincial Archives can be attributed to Probus Heine , who was officially in office from 1654 onwards . During the Swiss Peasants' War of 1653, the Diet commissioned the Guardian of the Baden Capuchin Monastery to calm the rebellious Solothurn peasants. It is possible that the Council's position was softened for this mediation. The construction plan from 1653 provided for 28 cells and thus more than twice as many brothers.

On January 13, 1841, the Grand Council abruptly opened the monastery at the beginning of the Aargau monastery dispute. The brothers had to leave the monastery within 48 hours. The Guardian Theodosius Florentini was accused of inciting the rural population to revolt. Florentini was able to escape the process by fleeing to Alsace . The building complex, which was finally passed into the ownership of the local community in 1843 , was used as a boys' school until 1855. After the demolition, the old school house was built on the site from 1856 . The monastery church was initially used as a school chapel, but was also demolished in 1877. The Capuchin Garden was parceled out and leased to citizens. Today the canton police , the district court, the district office and the district prison are housed in the former old school .

organization

Johann Rudolf Schellenberg : Capuchins in prayer, watercolor around 1780

Tasks and areas of activity of the Convention

The religious priests of the Capuchins sometimes helped out within the deanery. From 1670, after the compulsory parish was abolished, the sacrament of penance was also given. The pastoral care of the sick and dying was, according to the custom of the time, almost exclusively entrusted to the Capuchins. Capuchins took special care of inmates and convicts in prisons and accompanied those condemned to death on their last walk.

Another focus was the mission. There were repeated complaints about abusive controversial sermons, for example by the Guardian Gaudentius von Baden in Zurzach on Easter Tuesday 1632. The Capuchin order made great contributions in caring for the plague sufferers in the epidemics of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Pastoral care and nursing merged into one another.

Structure of the plant

Édouard Pingret : Capucin de la ville de Bade ("Baden Capuchin"), lithograph by Godefroy Engelmann , 1824

Outdoor area

The compactly used monastery grounds lay in front of the city tower on the other side of the moat. Usually only the facade of the monastery church was exposed. The rest of the area was surrounded by a wall at Capuchin monasteries of that time. It can be assumed, as specified in the rules, that a vegetable and herb garden, a tree garden and a farm yard with a fountain and cattle trough.

Nave, outer choir, inner choir

The construction plans from 1653 in the provincial archive have survived. Usually the church entrance and the visitor rooms were on the street. The cell windows faced either the rectangular courtyard or the gardens. The type of church follows the Venetian-Tyrolean scheme of the contemporary Capuchin churches. Based on the construction-time plans in the provincial archive of Lucerne, the rectangular nave (room for the population) stood in the north of the complex. In the smaller rectangular wing with two cross vaults attached to the south, the outer choir (= chancel ), separated by the choir grille under the transverse arch, and the inner choir (= prayer room of the Capuchins) to the west. The inner choir and the outer choir were connected in the use of time by two windows, which were closed during the activities, and a doorway. The two windows made confession and communion possible. The means of wine, water and bread needed for liturgical reasons were exchanged through the trullet. On the convent side, a window located above enabled a view of the nave. The pulpit was reached via the library on the upper floor of the convent wing. There was an oratorio on the south side of the outer choir .

Convention wing

The four-wing convent wing, the quadrum, south of the church was accessed through an entrance corridor. The narrowed north wing contained the oratory with a window to the presbytery. Presumably two galleries bordered the rectangle courtyard. A door to the cloister at the end of the entrance corridor led to the east wing, which contained the sacristy , three rooms for functional rooms and a toilet, and the kitchen in the south-east corner room. The refectory was located in the south wing . In the west wing, outside the enclosure, there were consulting rooms, the obligatory poor dining room and a heated pilgrims' room. Two flights of stairs in the northeastern east wing and in the southwestern west wing led to the upper floor.

The dormitory with 28 cells was located on the upper floor of the quadrum in the east and south wings . There were also function rooms, guest rooms and the infermeria. The library in the west wing bordered the wall of the lay church and was provided with an entrance to the pulpit.

Preserved equipment of the monastery

Panel paintings, monstrance and bell

The main altar sheet preserved in the Sebastian Chapel depicts the Virgin Mary and St. Francis in conversation with the Holy Father, following the patronage. Catherine of Alexandria and John the Baptist . The altar sheet, which can be assigned to the Bolognese school, is dated 1952 and names Annibale Carracci as the painter . According to the inventory, the picture was donated in 1593 by the Spanish ambassador Pompeius de la Croce. The altar panel of a side altar has also been preserved in the Sebastian Chapel. He shows the English greeting . The tabernacle is kept in the governor's palace. According to the regulations in Chapter 6 of the Constitution, the monastery bell from 1652, weighing a maximum of 150 pounds, hangs in the turret of the Chapel of St. Nicholas . The partially gilded sun monstrance from 1730, which was chased out of silver and partially gilded, is now kept in the Capuchin monastery in Stans.

Library

According to the rules of the order, the private possession of books was forbidden: «Since it was always the intention of our father [Francis] that the brothers have the books they need in community and not in private, in order to better observe poverty and any attachment to the books and to keep every hobby away from the heart, it is decreed that in every convent there should be a small room in which the Scriptures and the works of some holy teachers are kept ». The Capuchin libraries, which have been extended to some extent through donations, owe their existence to the fact that the novices and clergy studied for up to ten years and the preparation of the sermons.

After the dissolution of the monastery, the books came to the Aargau canton library in 1841 . The library catalog and a catalog have been preserved in the Aargau State Archives . The holdings taken over from the Capuchin monasteries were still classified as little or not significant in 1857, as they consisted primarily of ascetic writings, editions of the church fathers and classics.

Outstanding members

The last Guardian Theodosius Florentini
  • Ludwig (of Saxony) Einsiedel (1554–1608), first Guardian from 1591 to 1596
  • Theodosius Florentini (1808–1865), social reformer, Guardian in Baden from 1838 to 1841

literature

  • Peter Hoegger: Former Capuchin monastery (Baden). In: The Art Monuments of the Canton of Aargau, The District of Baden . Volume VI. Birkhäuser, Basel, 1976, pp. 194–198.
  • Engelbert Ming OFMCap: The former Capuchin monastery in Baden 1593-1841 . In: Helvetia Franciscana , 17, 1988, pp. 93-148.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walther Hümmerich: Capuchin architecture in the Rhenish order provinces: Building regulations of the Capuchins. Society for Middle Rhine Church History, Mainz 1987, p. 152.
  2. ^ Johann Joseph Alois Vock: The Peasants' War in 1653 or the great popular uprising in Switzerland. 1831, p. 259.
  3. ↑ Bernd Moeller, Bruno Jahn (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia of Theology and the Churches. de Gruyter, Berlin 2005, p. 429f.
  4. ^ Otto Mittler: History of the city of Baden. Volume 2. HR Sauerländer, 1962, p. 216.
  5. ^ Beda Mayer: Helvetia Franciscana , Volume 12, Issue 6, 1977, p. 149.
  6. ↑ J. Müller: The Aargau: its political legal, cultural and moral history. F. Schulthess, 1871, Volume 2, p. 210.
  7. ^ Karl Grunder: Cistercian buildings in Switzerland: new research results on archeology and art history. Volume 1, Verlag der Fachvereine, 1990, p. 253.
  8. ↑ See illustration of the cracks in Hoegger, Peter, 1976, p. 195.
  9. ↑ Quotation from: Lecture by Leonhard Lehmann at the opening of the traveling exhibition "Piety & Knowledge" on the occasion of the commemoration year of the secularization of the Capuchins in 1803 on June 12, 2003 in the University and State Library of Münster; uni-muenster.de (PDF).
  10. ^ Paul Schwenke: In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , Volume 27, p. 209.
  11. ↑ See catalog of the Aargau Cantonal Library: First Part: Alphabetical Catalog, Volume 1, Aarau, 1857, p. XXXIV.
  12. ↑ Bernd Moeller, Bruno Jahn (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia of Theology and the Churches. de Gruyter, Berlin 2005, p. 434.